The 2017-2018 Future City Championship China was held on December 9-10, 2017 at the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall. Valley Town and Made Creator, the two teams that participated in the championship representing Kaiwen Academy (Haidian), won second and third prize for the secondary school group, respectively, in the championship finals.

The Future City Championship, which is a worldwide competition for junior high school and primary school students as a team, requires the students to envision, study, design, and build future cities by means of project-based learning. In this process, the students need to answer a core issue of today’s world—how to make the world a better place. The competition emphasizes engineering design methods and project management, and has a different theme each year. This year’s theme was “Elderly People-Friendly.”

Kaiwen students’ entries

 

This was the first time that Kaiwen had participated in this international competition. A total of three teams from Kaiwen signed up for the competition in the North China division, and two teams eventually qualified for the national finals. They were Valley Town (a team made up of Zhang Zitong and Zhu Zhaoyu in Grade 7 and Lin Gan and Liu Jinchang in Grade 8) and Made Creator (a team made up of Guo Zihan, Wang Yiran, Du Qian, Mi Ruize, and Gao Yuran in Grade 6). Kaiwen science teachers Sun Chao, Zhu Xiaoming, and Shen Liang served as the instructors for the teams.

© The students explain their entries to the audience.

During the two months or so from sign-up to submission of competition materials, the students held discussions, did research, decided on the name of the city, and determined core issues based on this year’s theme before finally putting forward a solution. The students then went on to plan the city, purchase materials, build the city, modify the design, rebuild the city, rehearse the presentation, and shoot videos.

 © The students pull an all-nighter the day before the competition to polish presentations for their entries.

 

With great enthusiasm and earnestness, the students experienced a complete project-based learning process. In addition to the relevant subject knowledge, the students have also learned how to manage a project, effectively communicate and cooperate, and how to fully tap and use resources around them.

 Under the coordination of the EP department, art teachers Leif Raiha and Han Xu, math and IT teachers Stephen Pattenden, Joe Desroches, and Jeremy Ide, and other teachers helped science teachers give students advice on their entries. This vividly interpreted the interdisciplinary STEAM education at Kaiwen Academy (Haidian).

 

 

The students’ excellent expression skills and communication skills at the scene of the national competition received praises from the judges and helped them achieve excellent results in the end.

 

Let’s take a look at the wonderful pictures of the children at the scene!

Highlights of the competition

 

For more details, please visit the official website https://futurecity.org.